That was the challenge issued by Nelson Andrade Colmenares, coordinator of the United Nations Environment Programme's regional coordinating unit on Wednesday when Jamaica joined the world in observing World Oceans Day.

"Ours is an ocean planet: 70 per cent of it is covered by the seas, and it is in them that all life originated. Yet we have done far less to protect the marine environment than the much smaller part of the planet that is dry land. While almost 13 per cent of the Earth's land surface is covered by officially designated protected areas, less than 0.6 per cent of the oceans are similarly safeguarded, even on paper," Colmenares charged in his official message.